BANGKOK: More than a dozen Rohingya refugees abandoned by people smugglers have been found in a southern Thai forest, police said on Wednesday, almost a year on from a crackdown which has forced traffickers to find new routes. Muslim Rohingya, an ethnic minority from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state who are forced to live in apartheid-like conditions, have for years fled their homeland seeking work in Muslim-majority Malaysia. “Fourteen Rohingyas, including kids as young as a few years old, were found at around 6am (Wednesday),” police captain Panuwat Chomyong, a highway officer in central Chumpon province, told AFP. Smugglers abandoned the group ahead of a police checkpoint, Panuwat said, adding they had initially entered Thailand through Kanchanaburi province, a much more northern entry point than those usually used by traffickers.